October 27th, 2006

Many business owners are tempted to use their personal CD collection for background music in their establishment. "Why shouldn't my customers hear great music while they walk through my store?", they think. "By choosing my store, customers have chosen to enter a place that reflects me and nothing does that quite like my favorite Little River Band CD." It seems like goodwill to share music they enjoy with customers, but in fact this exposes those business owners to a possible lawsuit.

Royalty free production music is the better alternative to ensure the proper licenses are in place for commercial usages like the one described above. Stock music libraries carry many CDs which create an appealing atmosphere for customers while giving the business owner the piece of mind in knowing the royalty free background music being used is copyright clean.

Napster certainly contributed to the notion that music is free. In 2000 millions of songs were downloaded illegally by music lovers all over the world. Even when the law finally caught up with the technology, the purveying sense among music lovers was still, "I lived this music in high school. I have some ownership in this."

But the financial reality is this: For every Little River Band album that enjoyed strong sales, Polygram records invested in nine others that did not. The legal guardrails that enabled Polygram Records to recoup their investment were US intellectual property laws.

Record labels invested large sums of money into recording that were by no means guaranteed to be profitable. As the primary risk bearer, at least in a financial sense, they remain entitled to reap the benefits enjoyed by the success of any song whose production they finance. Artists also take risks with the project as they have to put their personal reputation and artistic career at the mercy of a buying public.

How important are intellectual property laws? Consider the fact that a lack of copyright enforcement laws was the primary reason China did not become a member of the World Trade Organization until 2001. The US government was keenly aware that exporting computer software and movies to a country that wouldn't honor those property rights was a deal breaker for any kind of viable economic partnership.

It's important to stay on the right side of the law when using music in your establishment. Fortunately, many royalty free libraries, such as royaltyfreemusic.com make buyout music available for licensing and do not require any additional fees other than the initial purchase fee of the royalty free music CD.

These special arrangements can only be made with stock music companies that feature a wide variety of music to suit any aesthetic need as well as control of the copyrights therein as make possible the public performance of that production music.

A typical scenario that takes place between a business and a royalty free music library is a small upfront licensing fee which guarantees that business owner the permanent right to play that stock music in their establishment. This fee would be largely favorable to the business owner as an alternative to navigating the waters of ensuring updated memberships with performing rights organizations, negotiating what is referred to as a
"sync license" with the publisher and ensuring that no other loose strings are attached in terms of ownership holding entities that would interfere with the legality of the particular usage of that royalty free music.

According to BMI guidelines, if the total square footage of a business exceeds 2000 ft., that business has to pay an annual licensing fee to both ASCAP and BMI before it can play, for instance, a smooth jazz CD you would buy at the record store.

One excellent feature of working with a high quality production music library is the customized features of that music which address particular issues business owners encounter when attempting to set a mood in their establishment.

Sudden jumps in volume in particular are an issue that business owners find troublesome when a salesperson is engaging a customer in conversation. High quality production music libraries take the time the address this issue in the audio mastering of those tracks by compressing the highest and lowest volume ranges to ensure that the background music playing does not interrupt the flow of day to day commerce.

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